Multiple landmarks on the UW-Madison campus — including Memorial Union — were seemingly vandalized overnight with messages protesting a conservative commentator who was set to speak on campus Monday night.
Hospitals across the nation are experiencing a surge in respiratory illnesses among children.
And hospitals in Wisconsin aren’t immune.
University of Wisconsin assistant professor of adult and pediatric infectious disease Dr. Joseph McBride says practitioners are “without a doubt” seeing higher numbers of respiratory issues in children. He specifically points to “respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.”
“RSV is a common seasonal virus that pediatricians, healthcare providers, young parents and families are well aware of year-in and year-out,” McBride says. “What’s interesting about RSV is that in the setting of COVID and all the mask use, it kind of threw off our normal seasonality of it. Usually it’s pretty predictable each year starting toward the end of fall, in to the winter during our normal cough-and-cold season that we would see spikes in RSV.”
Quoted: “They vote for the Democrats. And it’s been pretty consistent,” said Marquez, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison specializing in Chicano and Latino studies.
“The Democrats have to have a good strategy for reaching out to Latino voters. They have to make contact on the ground. They have to convince them that the election is important, that their vote matters, and that they should go to all of this trouble to get out and vote for a party that oftentimes doesn’t deliver,” he said.
UW-Madison is celebrating homecoming and starting off the weekend strong with their beloved parade.
NBC15′s John Stofflet reported live from the parade and talked to the owners of a Bucky Wagon, a reconstructed fire engine.
A coalition of private universities in Wisconsin is canceling classes for students on election day as part of an effort to boost voter turnout. We talk about the “Why Bother, Wisconsin?” campaign, and hear why they want other universities to join them.
It’s Homecoming Week at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Badger Band is getting ready for its annual parade performance.
News 3 Now photojournalist Sydney Martin caught up with the band as they ran through one of their final practices before the event.
The tenth “Fill the Hill” fundraiser at the University of Wisconsin-Madison brought in more than $421,000 for various campus initiatives.
Morning rounds at the animal hospital on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus start at 8 a.m. sharp. That means the days begin around dawn for veterinary medicine students in their fourth and final year of school, when clinical rotations largely replace classwork.
Quoted: Some studies have shown more than 60% of the inflation Americans are feeling today can be directly attributed to the supply chain shortages of last year, said Mark Copelovitch, a political science and public affairs professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Second is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine is a major exporter of grain and Russia is a major supplier of oil, so wartime disruptions and U.S sanctions on Russia have contributed to rising food and gas prices.
Stimulus spending has also been a factor.
“The other part of the inflation is the demand side, especially when we were all sitting home, spending out stimulus checks when we could not go out (during the pandemic),” Copelovitch said.
Quoted: Patrick Remington, a former epidemiologist for the CDC and director of the Preventive Medicine Residency Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said COVID-19 vaccines have turned out to not be as effective as initially hoped but “the one aspect that every scientist agrees is that this is one of the safest vaccines ever produced, if not the safest vaccine.”
“I think it’s very worrisome that any politician would view information that is not scientifically sound or that maybe comes from a conspiracy theory,” he said. “I would be very concerned if that information resonates with their base, because then we’ll have policy that is being determined not by science and evidence but by superstition and by conspiracy, and that should be concerning for everybody.”
Former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, who served as U.S. Health and Human Services secretary and has endorsed Michels, promoted COVID-19 vaccines to college students while he was president of the University of Wisconsin System during the coronavirus pandemic but did not mandate them.
Thompson said Friday he hadn’t seen Michels’ comments on the CDC and COVID-19 vaccines because he has been traveling out of state. He said spreading rumors about COVID-19 vaccine mandates is a bad idea.
“This rumor now about CDC requiring children being vaccinated should not be spread,” Thompson said.
VIDEO: Dr. Nicholas Kuehnel, a pediatric emergency medicine physician from UW Health, has ways for parents and families to focus on safety this Halloween
Quoted: “When COVID came about, there were a lot of interventions that happened — masking, social distancing and lots of places closed,” said Dr. Dan Shirley, UW Health’s medical director for infection prevention. “Those same interventions that prevent COVID also prevented the flu.”
Overall enrollment across Wisconsin colleges and universities fell around 3 percent this fall, according to preliminary data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Researchers say national enrollment declines have slowed to pre-pandemic, but they were surprised by the lack of a rebound.
Noted: The milk would be turned into powder and used in infant formula manufactured at an FDA-licensed facility in Billings, Montana, according to Linardakis.
He and Esselman were preparing FDA-required clinical studies for the formula, at University of Wisconsin-Madison, when COVID-19 shut down the research.
The UW-Madison Police Department (UWPD) is investigating after private photos and a video of UW volleyball student-athletes were shared publicly without their consent.
UW Athletics issued a statement Wednesday saying the private photos and video were never intended to be shared publicly and are now being circulated digitally.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison athletics department said “private photos and videos” of volleyball student-athletes are circulating the internet.
According to the athletic department, the photos were not intended to be shared. The exact content of what was in those photos and videos was not specified.
Noted: More than 2,150 people have taken the Main Street Agenda survey. Overall, the future of democracy is the No. 1 concern followed by climate change and abortion. The survey is not a scientific poll, and its results cannot be generalized to the entire population of Wisconsin, but the responses do provide a snapshot of what’s on the minds of voters this fall.
As part of the collaboration of Wisconsin Public Radio, the La Follette School of Public Affairs at University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Ideas Lab, we’ve held two events in Milwaukee as well as town halls in Pewaukee and Green Bay. The final event will be Nov. 1 in Wausau.
Quoted: Ross Milton is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs. He said the study offers a clear picture of the state’s tax levels.
“There’s a sense among many people that Wisconsin is a high-tax state, and that we should change that,” he said. “This report reflects the fact that Wisconsin is really a moderate tax state.”
Milton said states that relied heavily on hospitality and tourism taxes during the pandemic may have fared worse due to closures and stay-at-home orders. But Wisconsin relies heavily on property taxes, which remained relatively stable at that time.
As the demand for nurses grows across Wisconsin, nursing education programs are struggling to churn out enough graduates — but not for lack of applicants. Instead, schools are facing dwindling numbers of faculty and limited classroom space, forcing them to turn away prospective students.
Quoted: Laura Dresser, associate director of the COWS economic think tank at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said tight labor markets and the COVID-19 pandemic have put more power in the hands of workers.
“I think workers feel like they learned something about their value during the pandemic, and they don’t see that honored,” Dresser said. “And so, I think that you see workers stepping up more for that reason.”
Following recessions in 2001 and 2007, she said unions made concessions to companies during negotiations as they faced threats of shuttering plants when the manufacturing sector contracted.
“The dynamics there were about firms threatening to shut plants or move production without concessions, (telling workers), ‘If you don’t concede this, we’ll just move,'” Dresser said. “It was a credible threat. A lot of plants did move.”
Quoted: Keith Findley, a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, said the state set up the timeline of the events and established the identity of the driver. But he’s not sure what Brooks will do to present his case, as he hasn’t given his opening statement yet. His defense is set to begin with that.
“It’s really hard to anticipate what he’s going to do because I don’t have any idea of what his theory of defense is or what kind of claims he’s going to make,” Findley said.
“Opening statements are not evidence, so whatever he asserts in there, he’ll have to back it up with evidence,” he said.
Noted: During a September campaign stop at a coffee shop near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, the college Democrats who came out to support Evers were well aware of his vetoes. Several said they were worried about the dramatic changes that could be in store for state government if Evers were to lose.
“I think in a democracy, you need balancing voices,” said Rianna Mukherjee, a senior at the UW-Madison majoring in political science. “Our Republican Legislature doesn’t balance voices.”
“Without a Democrat as governor … I’m concerned that Republicans will have too much control,” said Elliot Petroff, a sophomore studying political science. “We need to be able to veto things and there’s no other opposition that can do it right now.”
Some students mentioned specific bills Evers vetoed, including some that would have restricted abortions prior to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down Roe v. Wade. Grant Hall, a sophomore studying computer science and data science, referenced the election bills.
“I fear that if he is not reelected, voting rights in Wisconsin will take a major hit,” Hall said. “I think those bills would pass pretty easily, and that’s terrifying.”
Quoted: “To get standing, you have to prove that you’re harmed by these actions and so to prove that you’ve been harmed by canceling a loan is a really hard needle to thread,” UW-Madison professor Nick Hillman explained.
Hillman says the lawsuits are attacking the forgiveness plan from all sorts of angles to clear the legal standing hurdle and more lawsuits are expected to come now that the application process is officially open.
Out of the three that are currently still awaiting a court decision, Hillman thinks the one filed jointly by six states has the best chance to undo the forgiveness.
Jennifer Angus is a professor of design studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. About 22 years ago, she moved to the city, bringing with her a passion for insects and art.
“I got into it when I was doing research in northern Thailand on tribal minority dress, and I came across a garment that was embellished with these hard outside wings that are known as elytra,” said Angus.
Noted: These issues are important to Wisconsin voters ahead of the Nov. 8 elections. In a summer Marquette University Law School poll, 66% of respondents said they see water quality issues as a statewide concern. A survey conducted late last year by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs found 63% of respondents said state government should be doing more to combat climate change, including 27% of Republican respondents.
Quoted: Simeon Alder, a visiting assistant professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he thinks new ideas “are the fundamental engine of growth.”
“To get these extra ideas, you just need more and more people as sort of a general result,” he explained.
Quoted: “Becoming acquainted with a place’s supernatural beings, and becoming a transmitter of a place’s supernatural lore … is a way of further weaving ourselves into the stories of a place, and proclaiming our own belonging within it,” said Lowell Brower, a lecturer in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Folklore program, where he teaches, among other courses, “The Supernatural in the Modern World.”
Noted: Bleeding hearts (Dicentra spectabilis) are an extremely common plant grown all over the U.S. They show off unique flowers that are heart-shaped and white, pink, or red depending on the cultivar, notes the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This easy-to-grow plant thrives on its own with little human intervention. It will grow happily in shady gardens beneath large trees as long as the soil is well-draining.
Senator Ron Johnson and Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes faced off Thursday night during the TMJ4 Senate Debate. The debate was broadcast across the state and the country.
At UW-Madison, the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership hosted a debate watch party for students. About two dozen students showed up and were engaged for the entire debate.
Former Journal Times Editor Peter D. Fox is among distinguished industry leaders who will be inducted into the Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame by the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation on Thursday, Nov. 10, at The Madison Club, 5 E. Wilson St.
As an undergraduate attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Fox served as a part-time copy editor for the Wisconsin State Journal, joining the paper full time during graduate school.
Quoted: “I think it’s fear about the other side winning. Democrats are so eager to have Ron Johnson out of office. They have seen him move in a more radical direction and in favor of the kind of style of governing that Trump was engaged in,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Barnes is, I think, raising concern among Republicans who don’t want to see what they view as a radical agenda come to Washington.”
Noted: Escaping life on the family farm, he took that interest with him to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was a Goldwater Republican who could happily mingle with radicals on marches for civil rights. He majored in history and stayed on for a law degree.
Quoted: David Canon, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told us by email that it’s not uncommon for a candidate to shift positions after winning a primary or so close to a general election.
“Michels clearly has switched his position on abortion, saying that he would sign a bill with exceptions for rape and incest (after previously saying he did not support exceptions),” Canon said. “We are seeing this all over the country with candidates moving more to the center for the general election.”
The student leader of the College Republicans chapter at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse resigned from her post this week after group members scrawled an antisemitic message on a campus sidewalk and promoted it on social media.
UW-La Crosse is at least the second Wisconsin school to be hit with antisemitic messages this school year.
“Sea Grant celebrates a 50-year anniversary this fall. Through the decades, our staff and funded researchers have strived to enhance those Great Lakes’ uses and address conservation challenges, fulfilling a research, education and outreach mission,” writes James Hurley, director of the UW Aquatic Sciences Center.
Quoted: “We know that our needs change from month to month,” said Roberts Crall, who works at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “So one month, it might be that families need a little bit of extra cash to pay for gas and the next month, it might be for rent and the month after that it might be for diapers or school supplies. And so giving people that flexibility to be able to manage their own budget seemed really important and (an) important idea to test.”
City officials are partnering with UW-Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty and the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania to compare outcomes for families getting the payments to those in a control group. Participating households got debit cards to receive the payments, and researchers plan to study how people spent the funds (which will published as broad categories) as well as how the payments affected overall wellbeing, Roberts Crall said.
Quoted: The holdover effect diminishes voters’ power to shape the executive branch when governors don’t have the ability to appoint people who actually serve, said Miriam Seifter, an associate professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-director of the State Democracy Research Initiative. And if it becomes a widespread practice, it could affect the responsiveness and accountability of government officials.
“There’s two different things going on here,” she said. “One is the situation where individuals assert the power to stay in office after the term has expired. The other is the Senate refusing to confirm appointees. If either of those things happen in isolation or rarely, neither one is democracy-altering. If these happen systematically and across the board … you would start to see the constraints of gubernatorial power.”
A University of Wisconsin-Madison historian on Wednesday won one of the nation’s most prestigious awards, which comes with a no strings attached $800,000 stipend to spend however she sees fit.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named UW-Madison professor Monica Kim, 44, as one of 25 national recipients of the MacArthur fellowship. Also known as the “genius grant,” the awards are given annually to a select group of individuals across a range of disciplines who show exceptional creativity in their work and future ambitions.
Gov. Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced a $16 million, statewide investment Wednesday to improve maternal and infant health, especially among people of color.
The funding, largely made possible through the American Rescue Plan Act, will be split between the state health department’s Maternal and Child Health program, the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Healthier Wisconsin Endowment and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health. Each entity will receive $5.5 million.
The MCW endowment fund and UW-Madison will use the funding to also support community grants for programs that focus on the social conditions that contribute to racial disparities in Wisconsin’s maternal and infant mortality rates.
Few figures in the conservation world are considered as wise and prophetic as Aldo Leopold.
The former University of Wisconsin-Madison professor helped pioneer the field of wildlife management in the 1930s.
He’s also the author of “A Sand County Almanac,” the 1949 book of essays published after his death that is now revered worldwide for its smart and poetic passages, including on the relationship of humans to the environment.
Quoted: Julie Underwood, former chair of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, served on the Blue Ribbon Commission and is currently pushing for 90% coverage, in her role as president of the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools.
“It is a federal mandate to educate all children with disabilities; we have to provide them a free appropriate public education, as we should,” Underwood said. “But when the state stepped back from funding that more and more, it became more and more expensive for local school districts to make good on that promise.”
Noted: One of the major polluters, Sonoda said, is the fossil fuel industry. Across the country, coal-fired and gas power plants make up a third of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2020 University of Wisconsin-Madison study.
According to the UW-Madison study, transitioning to 100 percent clean energy would save $21 billion per year by averting health issues. That change, the study said, would prevent nearly 2,000 premature deaths, 650 respiratory emergency room visits and 34,400 cases of asthma exacerbation each year.
Bascom Hill will soon be covered in loads of plastic lawn flamingos because of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association’s (WFAA) 10th annual Fill the Hill event.
Erika Meitner recently arrived in Madison as a professor and master of fine arts program director in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s English Department. She’s written six books of poems, and her work frequently appears in anthologies. In her latest collection, Useful Junk, Meitner considers what it means to be a sexual being in a world that often renders women all but invisible. Meitner takes the podium Oct. 15 at the Central Library at 7:30 p.m.
Milwaukee-born Emily Sisson demolished an American marathon record when she crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 18 minutes and 29 seconds in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Sunday.
Sisson broke Keira D’Amato’s record by 43 seconds (set in Houston earlier this year) and placed second overall in the event, behind native Kenyan Ruth Chepngetich (2:14:18).
Sisson attended high school in Missouri but returned to the state of her birth to begin her college career when she competed as a freshman at the University of Wisconsin. She earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year in cross country and earned All-American status when she took second at the NCAA Great Lakes regional and third at the Big Ten championships. Sisson transferred to Providence College thereafter.
The University of Wisconsin System has been in a tuition freeze for residential undergraduate students since the 2013-14 school year, but tuition isn’t the only bill students must pay to attend college.
Quoted: Study author Dr. Drew Watson, physician for the University of Wisconsin Athletics, said: ‘The cancellation of sports in the early pandemic was accompanied by decreased physical activity and quality of life, as well as startlingly high levels of anxiety and depression.
“Although the return to sports has been associated with large improvements in physical activity levels, quality of life and mental health, we are still seeing higher levels of anxiety and depression than before Covid, suggesting that this will remain a vitally important priority for years to come.”
Quoted: “What the Wisconsin Supreme Court said is that to the extent that these ballots are being dropped off with election officials, that it has to be the voters themselves that do it and not others,” said Robert Yablon, associate professor and co-director of the State Democracy Research Initiative at University of Wisconsin Madison School of Law. “But they specifically didn’t rule on whether that is also true when an absentee ballot is put in the mail. There just is not a definitive state level word at this point.”
“There are some people who just can’t physically get up to put it in the mail,” Newcomer said. “There’s a reason why they vote absentee. It is difficult for them.”
Noted: The Social Security program emerged from discussions in the economics department at the University of Wisconsin, which also developed programs such as unemployment insurance, workers compensation, Aid to Families with Dependent Children and other social programs. Prototypes for national legislation on these topics first passed in the state of Wisconsin.
Seven months since Russia invaded Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has asserted control over a nuclear power plant and signed annexation laws for territories out of Russia’s control. Includes interview with Ted Gerber, Director of the Wisconsin Russia Project, Professor of Sociology
Jair Alvarez is a litigation attorney providing corporate and criminal law counsel and representation in Madison, operating his own practice since graduating from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2014. As a law school student, he volunteered at the National Immigrant Justice Center.
Luz del Carmen Arroyo Calderon is Retention Initiatives and Student Engagement (RISE) Student Success Manager at Madison College. She grew up in a small town in Mexico and was 12 when she moved to Milwaukee with her mom. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010 and taught in the Madison Metropolitan School District as a Bilingual Resource Specialist, Bilingual Resource Teacher and Dual Language Immersion Teacher until 2017, when she joined the staff at Madison College.
Kattia Jimenez is the owner of Mount Horeb Hemp LLC, a USDA certified organic hemp farm. She is a host of the Hemp Can Do It podcast and is a guest lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural & Life Sciences.
Last December, Danielle Hairston Green took the stage in front of a roomful of strangers and told a witty, passionate story about “leaping and soaring” to overcome life’s obstacles. Not only did she receive raucous applause, but she also won that night’s monthly themed StorySLAM at the High Noon Saloon, sponsored by The Moth Madison.
On Oct. 14, Hairston Green will join nine other area storytellers at The Barrymore Theatre to compete in the first in-person Madison Moth GrandSLAM Championship since October 2019.
“It’s important for people to find a home to not only share their thoughts and experiences, but to do so in a space that’s nonjudgmental and where people are vulnerable,” says Hairston Green, who is director for the Human Development and Relationships Institute in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension. “Sometimes at StorySLAMS, you’re in front of people you’ve never met and may never see again, and that’s a freeing experience.”
Noted: There are over 6,000 dairy farms in the state, he said. According to a University of Wisconsin-Madison study, dairy generates nearly half of Wisconsin’s agricultural revenue each year. Over 150,000 people work in the industry, making up 4.2 percent of the state’s total workforce.
Tyler Lark, a geographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, grew up among farms, working on a neighbor’s dairy, vaguely aware of the tension between clearing land to grow food and preserving nature. As an engineering student working on water projects in Haiti, he saw an extreme version of that conflict: forests cleared for firewood or to grow crops, producing soil erosion, environmental denudation and worsening poverty. “I think it was that experience that told me, ‘Hey, land use is important,’” he says.
Noted: Professors Rhodes and Max Besbris from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found several disparities after examining recovery efforts from Hurricane Harvey.
Includes interview with Dr. Laura Jacques who teaches obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Quoted: “After every election, especially a presidential election, there is some sense among the people who voted for the losing candidate that the election was not quite fair,” Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told ABC News. “But 2020 is different,” Burden continued. “Republican voters have been stuck with very low levels of support.”
Quoted: “We are here fighting for what Detroiters clearly said they wanted, which is property tax credits and cash compensation for the theft that happened through these illegally inflated property tax foreclosures,” said Bernadette Atuahene, a professor and property law scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
Dr. Katherine Gast had become accustomed to the odd social media comment or email from someone who does not support or understand gender affirmation procedures she provides to her transgender patients.
But Gast, a co-director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s UW Health gender services program, was blindsided by what happened when the social media outrage machine that has developed around transgender issues came for her.
On the afternoon of Sept. 23, a two-minute video of Gast describing gender-affirming operations was posted by the Twitter account Libs of TikTok, a self-described news service that acts as an outrage content factory for conservatives.
